1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of detection and location devices and methodologies employing such devices, in particular, for those systems and devices which are used to detect and locate an object or objects, particularly remotely located objects whose location is unknown and sought by the user of the invention.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's world, with the individual's increasing accumulation of possessions, and the progress of science and commerce constantly creating new consumer goods, it is increasingly difficult for the individual to keep track of or manage his or her possessions. The continued reduction in size of many. of consumer goods containing electrical circuitry makes it easier for the individual to misplace these possessions, with a corresponding increase in difficulty in finding said misplaced possessions. Once, the haven of the lost only belonged to misplaced or mislaid glasses, keys, wallets, gloves, or other small personal items, but now the gates have opened to encompass a multitude of sophisticated electronic devices of reduced size such as portable phones, cellular phones, hand-held computers, personal calendar/diaries, remote controls for automobiles, entertainment devices and their associated remote controls, and the like. Today's individual places great reliance on his or her electronic goods, and a temporary or permanent loss of these goods can cause great impairment to that individual and his or her ability to effectively function in today's society.
There is a need for a means by which an individual can find such misplaced or waylaid items quickly and efficiently. Much of the prior art has focused on transponder/receiver technology in which a hand-held device, large enough so that it cannot be easily lost in the first place, is activated by the individual looking for the undetectable item. Upon activation, the hand-held device would emit a signal that would be detected by a receiver attached to or incorporated into the said misplaced item prior to becoming misplaced. Upon receipt of said signal, the receiver would activate its own signal generator, such as a light or sound emitter, to alert and guide the operator to the lost device's location.
The prior art location apparatus would use ultrasound, infrared, radio frequency and the like for transmission/reception as a means to provide communication between transmitter and the receiver. The various types of circuitry employed therein are well known to those versed in the art.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,981 issued to Renny, U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,469 issued to Lander and U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,050 issued to Sacaa address the use of a wireless communication system comprised of a sending unit and a responding unit wherein a button on the sending unit causes the transmission of a fixed code that will be responded to by a particular responding unit.
What has not been adequately addressed by the prior art are those systems, means and apparati which would enhance the commercial viability of the location art. The issue that needs to be addressed is to allow full commercial realization of the genre of the location art as a whole, not the specific means of location. What is needed is the universal capability of allowing a locator system to have a programmable/re-programmable ability to reset a communication link between a control unit and a response unit that is connected to or made a part of the item sought to be located. This ability to program/re-program would allow an item with a response unit to be easily integrated with one or more control units. This would also allow ease of resale since the new owner could easily reprogram the response device/resold 20 item containing a response device to respond appropriately to the new owner's own central control device.
This universal programmable/re-programmable aspect of such location systems and methods would greatly enhance the probability that manufacturers of consumer devices would utilize the invention knowing that their products would not have a single fixed response communication link, but could easily be programmed and reprogrammed indefinitely to fit that individual consumers' location protocol. Thus, the consumer could buy a multitude of the same product or a multitude of different products, without losing the ability to find any of them when they were lost.